Take Care How You Hear - Luke 8:1-21

Good morning, Skyline Church.

Thank you guys for being here.

If we haven't met before, my name is Luke.

I go here.

I'm a member here at Skyline, and I have the privilege of preaching to you guys this morning.

So it should be good.

Now, guys, when I was in high school, I maybe like late middle school started to develop a disorder.

It was something that it mostly affected other people.

And I never really formally got a diagnosis, but my mom referred to it as selective hearing.

Maybe you've heard of this before.

Selective hearing is this weird phenomenon where people, like mostly teenagers, let's be honest, they have this ability to not hear things that are said like right to their faces.

And at the same time, like the flip side, they can sometimes hear things that they really probably shouldn't hear.

So for me, how this played out in high school, I'd be like in my room, headphones in, listening to something.

And if my parents are halfway across the house talking about something that I shouldn't hear, somehow through the walls, through my headphones, I'd clock it.

I'd be like, oh, interesting.

My brothers are in trouble.

Good to know.

But at the same time, my dad could come right up to me and be like, hey Luke, don't forget to do the dishes tonight.

And I just I wouldn't hear it.

I don't, it was wild.

It was crazy.

It was really a hard thing to go through, mostly for my parents.

Um but jokes aside, we know intuitively that hearing is not just one thing that's done one way, right?

My story from high school, that's an example of that.

But I'm sure we can all think of times, whether it's in class or at work where someone's trying to explain something to us and we're like not really getting it, or maybe we aren't even listening, we're like kind of daydreaming, but we're hearing it, but we're not hearing it.

Or maybe someone gives you a piece of advice and you don't really want to hear their advice.

You don't want to receive it and act on it.

We know intuitively that hearing is not just a question of did you hear or not?

It's often a question of how we choose to hear.

And that idea, the idea that how we choose to hear is important, is what Jesus is gonna be talking about in the passage that we're reading today.

He sums it up in this phrase.

He says, Take care how you hear.

In other words, be careful how you hear.

Today we're gonna be walking through Jesus' teaching in Luke chapter 8, verses 1 through 21.

Luke 8:1–21

And we're gonna break down what he's trying to say to his audience about how they should hear his words, and then what that means for us today about how we can hear Jesus' words.

But before we get into what Jesus is saying, into his teaching, we've got to set the scene.

At the end of Luke chapter 7, Adam preached on the story of the sinful woman, the woman of the city who has her sins forgiven by Jesus.

Luke 7 · chapter mention

And at the beginning of Luke chapter 8, there's a scene change.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

So let's start reading in Luke chapter 8, verses 1 through 3.

Luke 8:1–3

We should have the verses up on the screens if you're reading in the Bibles underneath the chairs.

That's page 823.

Starting in verse 1, Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

Soon afterward, he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.

And the twelve were with him, and also some women, who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities.

Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Shusa, Herod's household manager, and Susannah and many others who provided for them out of their means.

Okay, so after the city, after the story of the women of the city, and before the main body of our text today, where we'll be spending most of our time, which starts in verse 4, there's a scene change.

Luke is setting the context, the setting for where we're going to be in our text today.

Jesus is going from city to city proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.

He's doing what he's been doing throughout the book of Luke so far.

He's teaching and preaching.

And Luke says that the twelve disciples are with him, but then he does something interesting.

Did you catch it?

He says that there are women with Jesus, and he goes on to list them by name.

That's something that's really, really unusual for a biographer of the ancient Near East 2,000 years ago to do.

To draw attention to the women in Jesus' life like this, and especially to name them like in a list by name, that's really unusual.

This is also the first time that we see in Scripture Mary Magdalene get mentioned.

Mary Magdalene, as we heard on our Easter sermon, is the first person to see Jesus after he was resurrected.

So she's clearly someone that was important in Jesus' life.

And this is the first time that we get to see her in Scripture.

There's not a ton to say here other than to highlight how unusual it is that Luke keeps bringing special attention to the women in Jesus' life.

And as we continue to read through the book of Luke as a church, I want us to just have our eyes and ears opened to what Luke's trying to do by doing that.

I'm sure that as we continue to read through it, we'll see more and more of the theme that Luke is building about the women in Jesus' life.

But now let's turn our attention to the main body of our text today, starting in verse 4.

So we know that Jesus is going around from town to town, preaching the word of God.

And we're going to read one specific teaching of Jesus today.

It's basically one long speech that he gives.

So let's start in verse 4 when Jesus starts teaching.

If you'll read along with me, Jesus says, And when a great crowd was g oh, this text says, and when a great crowd was gathering, and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell among the path, and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it, and some fell on the rock, and as it grew up it withered away because it had no moisture, and some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it, and some fell into good soil, and it grew and yielded a hundredfold.

As he said these things he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

So you might have heard that and thought, Wow, what a neat, clear, obvious instruction from Jesus.

That totally makes sense to me.

If that's you, congratulations, you are officially smarter than Jesus' twelve disciples.

Because as we're about to see, they were confused.

So starting in verse nine, let's keep reading.

Verse 9, and when the disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

Now the parable is this The seed is the Word of God.

The ones along the path are those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy, but they have no root.

They believe for a while, and in a time of testing fall away.

And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and the riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

As for what for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

No one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.

Right, so that's super helpful, right?

Jesus literally goes through his own parable and explains, like word for word, what he means.

Makes my job preaching a lot easier, I'll tell you that.

So let's break down Jesus' interpretation of his own parable.

We're gonna start super high level first.

So, what is the parable overall?

Basically, there's a sower who's sowing seeds, which just means he's like scattering seeds.

The seeds, Jesus says, are the word of God.

The words of God.

And then there's four kinds of soil.

Four kinds of soil that these seeds can land in.

And Jesus says that these four kinds of soil represent four different kinds of hearers, four different ways that people can hear or receive God's word.

These four kinds of soil are the path, the rocky soil, the soil with thorns or weeds in it, and the good soil.

And we're gonna go through them one at a time and just talk about what Jesus says they are and what that means for us.

The first soil that the seed can land in is the path.

Jesus says a seed landing on a path will get trampled as people walk on it.

Birds will come and eat the seed.

And he says that this is like someone who hears God's word, but before it has the chance to take root, the devil comes and takes God's word from their heart so that they won't believe and be saved.

Now, I don't mean to fear-monger, make everyone afraid of like the devil over their shoulder, but that is literally what Jesus says.

When I first took a pass at this passage and was trying to figure out what it meant, my temptation was to be like, okay, so the people that are like the path, those are people who hear God's word and just don't really care.

Or they hear it and they're like not interested.

But that's not what Jesus says.

Jesus says that the people who are like the path are people who the devil comes and takes the word from their heart so that they may not be saved.

If you're here today and you're not a Christian, maybe you're considering faith, what I want you to take away from this is that that's not a decision that you're making in a vacuum.

That's not a decision that you're making free of any opposition.

There's a spiritual world beyond what we can see, touch, smell, taste, and we have a spiritual enemy whose main goal is to stop people from believing in Jesus.

So if you're deciding whether or not you want to follow Jesus, whether or not you want to believe in him, that's less like deciding where you want to go for dinner.

Just like, oh, I could go here, I could go there.

It doesn't really matter to anyone.

And it's more, bear with me, this is like not the best example, but it's what I've got.

It's more like deciding if you want to be a Kansas City Chiefs fan when you live in Denver, Colorado.

No, you don't, Brian.

I know you don't want to be a Chiefs fan.

It's like imagine you're you're interested in football, you're like trying to pick a team, and you're like, oh, maybe I'll be a Chiefs fan.

So you like watch some preseason games and you're like, oh, they're they're kind of fun.

Maybe I'll buy a jersey and then they're way too expensive.

So you're like, okay, I'll just get a sticker, I'll get a Kansas City Chiefs sticker and I'll put it on my car.

Chiefs Broncos isn't like the craziest, most heated rivalry, but if you have a Chiefs sticker on your car in Denver, you like might get your car keyed.

Like you might get your tires slashed.

Because if you're thinking about becoming a Chiefs fan in a city like Denver, you're gonna face some opposition.

In the same way, if you're thinking about following Jesus, you should expect resistance.

You should expect to face opposition.

Because you have an enemy who will do anything that he can to keep you from believing in God.

So the first kind of soil is the seed that lands on the path.

The second kind of soil that we seed is the seed that lands in rocky soil.

And here Jesus says that this is like someone who hears God's word and believes it, but because the soil is rocky, the seed can't grow deep roots.

And when the plant faces hardship, when it faces opposition or strong winds, it withers.

It's uprooted because it has no roots.

This is like a person who, when faced with difficulty, falls away from their faith.

Where I see this happen the most often is when people choose to follow Jesus because they think it'll make their life easier.

If you're following Jesus or you're thinking about following Jesus because you think that he can make your life easier, just let me warn you, prepare to be disappointed, right?

Jesus himself says in Mark 8 that any who would follow him must deny themselves and take up their cross.

That doesn't sound like a particularly easy life.

Whether you're following Jesus or not, you will face hardship and struggle in this life.

And if you're following Jesus because you think that he will make your life easier, then you'll abandon him the moment it becomes clear to you that that's not true.

In this example, we abandon our faith because God's word has no root in our lives.

So let's slip this on its head a little.

If being rootless can cause us to fall away when times get tough, then what does it look like to have deep roots?

If we're the soil and the seed is God's word, what does it look like for that seed to grow deep roots in us?

We've got two just super practical things for you, really quick.

First, study God's word.

Get to know God's word.

Let it infuse you.

Spend time reading it, get to know the truths about who Jesus is, what he's done, what he says about who you are.

Let these things become not just head knowledge, but heart knowledge.

Let them sink all the way into you, internalize them, memorize them so that when you face difficulty in this life, you'll not be tempted to walk away because of the lies that the world throws at you.

Because you will know the truths of Scripture and God's Word.

Another way to grow deep roots is to surround yourself with community that knows and loves Jesus and that knows and loves you.

People who know you deeply, who know your struggles, your sins, your joys, who've been with you through highs and lows, these are the kinds of people that you can lean on to give you strength when you are going through something hard.

I actually preached a whole sermon on basically that idea last year on the idea of friendship and what it looks like to be in Christian community and relying on one another.

So if you want to know more about what the Bible says about friendship in Christian community, check out our Spotify plug.

Those are just two super, super simple ways that you can grow deep, deep roots and let the word of God grow deep roots in you.

Study the Word of God, study the Bible, and get invested in Christian community.

Alright, so first soil is attacked by the devil.

The second kind of soil gets abandoned as we face hardship.

What is the third kind of soil that the seed can land in?

Jesus says, some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.

And as his interpretation, he says, as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

So the third seed, seed that falls among the thorns or weeds, I think this is maybe the most subtly dangerous of all the kinds of soil that we've talked about so far.

Because if you plant a seed and it sprouts and you see it sprout, I'm not a green thumb.

If I plant a seed and it grows, I'm pumped.

I'd be like, sweet, the seed is growing, I succeeded, the plant is alive, go me.

But then if you like go away for a couple weeks and you come back and suddenly there's these like four-foot-tall weeds all around your plant, and your plant hasn't grown at all since the last time you looked at it, you'd be like, what the heck?

Like I thought this plant was growing, and now all of the sunlight is being taken up by these weeds, and all the nutrients of the soil is going to these weeds, and my plant isn't growing at all.

Jesus says that this same thing can happen with the word of God in us.

It can take root and begin to grow, but if there are other seeds in the soil besides the seed of the word of God, then those seeds will grow up with it and will threaten to choke out the growth of God's word in you.

He specifically points to wealth and pleasure as two things that will choke God's word from growing in you.

Like I said, for me at least, I find this the most convicting of everything we've talked about so far.

I find it super easy to get stuck here, to get distracted by wealth and worldly pleasure.

Whether it's something as innocent as just wishing I made more money, so I could buy a nicer car or get like better ski gear and pursue my hobbies or go on nicer vacations, all the way to things like substance abuse or pornography, pursuing pleasure.

These are all the things that I've pursued throughout my life.

I'm no stranger to pursuing wealth and pleasure, but I've experienced that it can choke the growth of God's word in my life.

And in Matthew 6.23, or 6.24, Jesus says, you cannot serve both God and money, for you will hate one and love the other.

So I don't mean to demonize wealth or success or pleasure here on earth.

If you want a more robust theology of wealth, come find me after service.

I can point you to some really good resources.

But Jesus is offering us a warning here.

He's saying that you can only serve one thing.

And like plants in a garden, if you're if there are weeds in the soil, even if you're watering the soil, those weeds are going to threaten to choke out the plant that you want to grow.

So if you want the word of God to grow in your heart, be careful of the growth of the weeds.

Money and possessions and pleasure will try to choke the word of God from growing in your life and to stop it from growing into the mature plant that bears fruit.

So Jesus has shown us the three most common pitfalls that can keep the seed, which again is God's word, from growing into a big, beautiful plant that makes lots of fruit.

So, what then does it look like to be the good soil?

Well, if you're taking notes, I've got three things that are going to be what Jesus characterizes as the good soil.

Let's reread verses 15 through 18 where Jesus talks about what the good soil looks like.

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

No one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

All right, so three things that Jesus says about what the good soil is like.

First, they are steadfast and grow slowly.

Look at verse 15 again.

It says, Those who hearing the word hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

It's not about superhero effort.

It's not about being the one with the most faith, the most charisma, the most gospel shares, or the flashiest spiritual gifts.

Jesus says that being good soil is about honest faith, a good heart, and patience in how we bear fruit.

I think those two words, with patience, bearing fruit with patience, like really changes the meaning of this text.

He's basically saying to hold fast to God's word, to be true and honest in your love of God, and to know that fruit will come in its season.

Right?

We don't plant a strawberry bush and expect strawberries in January.

That's not when strawberries come.

We know that strawberries come in the summer.

Jesus is saying in the same way, focus on loving God and trust that the fruit will come in its season.

I think I often find myself tempted to chase bearing fruit all the time.

Whether that's seeing my friends come to faith, sharing the gospel, growing in how I use my spiritual gifts, growing in just my faith in general and the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, kindness, etc., etc.

I can get so caught up in chasing doing these things and being these things that it just becomes a weight of how can I ever be enough or do enough.

The Westminster Catechism says that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

And I think that's a really, really sweet thing that I've come back to again and again.

But in this context, I just think it's nice that it doesn't say the chief end of man is to share the gospel at least once a month so that you don't feel like you're not a good enough Christian.

Which is, I think, something that I find myself believing a lot.

But that's not the chief end of man.

It's so easy to get caught in the rat race of chasing after fruit so that we feel like we're good enough.

Good enough for God, good enough for others, good enough for our own high standards.

But guys, if you think about like a plant, there's a lot of plant metaphors going on, but if you have like an apple tree, you know that the apples are gonna grow on the branches.

And if you're like, okay, the apples grow on the branches, so if I want fruit, I gotta focus on the branches.

When you start watering the branches of your apple tree, like you're not gonna get any fruit.

You're focused too much on the branches and on chasing the fruit, that you're not, you're neglecting the plant, and you should be watering the roots.

In the same way, if we're soil and seed is the word of God and the plant is like our relationship with God and our faith, and as that grows, it bears fruit in our lives.

I think we're often tempted to put all of our focus and attention on chasing the fruit that we water the branches instead of watering the soil.

And what watering the soil looks like in our life is we kind of already talked about it.

Time in God's Word.

It's being invested in Christian community.

It's being a good neighbor, being kind to your friend.

In Jesus' words, it's being steadfast in our faith.

It's bearing fruit with patience.

It's holding fast with honest and good heart.

This is what it looks like to water the roots of our faith so that as the plant grows, it bears fruit in its season.

Now you might be asking, okay, Luke, I get it.

Patience is important.

But at some point you can be too patient, right?

Like James says, faith without works is dead.

So if there's no fruit, that's gotta be a problem, right?

Well, Jesus actually addresses that too.

Let's keep reading verses 16 and 17.

No one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand so that those who enter may see the light.

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

So, out of context, that's really confusing.

Even in context, it's a little confusing.

But I think it's helpful to see that Jesus is still talking about the good soil.

This is one train of thought.

So as we understand that this is Jesus describing what it means to be the good soil, I think it becomes clearer what he's talking about.

What he's saying here, and what my second bullet point is for what the good soil should look like, is that what kind of soil someone is will be self-evident or obvious.

He says, hey, if you if you light a lamp, what's the lamp gonna do?

It's gonna shine, right?

If you plant a seed in good soil and you make sure it gets water and sunlight, what's the seed gonna do?

It's gonna grow, right?

The light-giving nature of a lamp that's lit is like it's just part of what it is.

It just does that.

If you have a lamp, it gives off light.

The plant-growing nature of a seed is just what it does, right?

Seeds grow into plants, it's what they do.

In the same way, someone who's been genuinely changed by God, it's gonna be self-evident by how they live.

They just are different.

If someone has come to know the living God, they're gonna be marked and changed by that.

A seed on a rock can't grow and produce fruit any more than a lamp that's not lit can produce light, any more than someone who hasn't encountered the living God can look like they have.

You can't fake it.

A Christian, someone who knows Jesus, will be forever changed.

Jesus says everything that is secret will be made known.

There's no hiding, there's no pretending.

So, yes, someone who follows Jesus must bear fruit, but not because they're seeking the fruit, but because they're seeking Jesus.

And according to Jesus, if you seek him, you will bear fruit.

It's just a part of your nature.

When we choose to follow Jesus, he gives us a new nature, and it becomes self-evident, obvious that we are changed.

Just like it's obvious whether a lamp is lit or not.

So we know that the good soil is those who hear God's word and hold fast to it, patiently bearing fruit.

We know that the good soil is self-evident.

It'll be obvious what this what kind of soil it is, based on how it is, whether the plant grows or not, whether the lamp is lit or not.

How does Jesus finish this thought?

Well, in verse 18, he says this He says, Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.

Take care then how you hear.

Be careful how you hear.

Because how you hear God's word can lead to massively different outcomes.

On the one hand, if you choose to press in to what Jesus is saying, to listen intently and to ask and seek and be curious, he says that you will be given more.

But if you reject what he's saying, then even what you do have, even the things that you cling to instead of Jesus, be it wealth or health or relationships or possessions, that you will lose those things.

Because in this world, nothing lasts forever.

All things pass away, only the word of God remains forever.

So Jesus challenges his listeners.

He says, be careful how you hear.

Because if you hear without really hearing, if you hear the way that 15-year-old me heard my dad tell me to wash the dishes, then you could lose everything.

But if you hear Jesus truly, if you really listen, then you will gain the greatest gift of all.

You'll get to know and have personal relationship with the God who made you.

We even see this idea played out in this very text when Jesus' disciples come to Jesus to ask him what the parable means.

Jesus preaches this parable to a large crowd of people, his twelve disciples and probably a bunch of other people.

But notice that the twelve disciples come to him after and they ask him what the parable means.

And because they sought him and they asked, they get to know what it means.

They get deeper insight and understanding into what Jesus is saying, that presumably the crowds didn't.

Probably a lot of people just walked away, being like, What was that guy talking about?

I don't know.

But because the disciples sought Jesus, because they asked for more, they got more.

Later on in the book of Luke, in chapter 11, Jesus will say, I tell you, ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.

Jesus promises over and over again throughout Scripture that as we press in, as we seek him, he will meet us there.

And from there we'll learn to fall more in love with him, and we'll seek him more and more as we go deeper into relationship with him.

And that's where Luke kind of decides to land the plane on this passage of Scripture, on the idea that closeness with Jesus is something that's available to anyone who seeks it.

Verses 19 to 21 say this.

Then his mother and brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd.

And he was told, Your mother and your brothers are outs are standing outside desiring to see you.

But he answered them, My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

Jesus says that those who hear, who really hear his words and follow and obey him, they're like his family.

That familial closeness, that's what Jesus offers those who would hear him.

And this, friends, is one of the greatest joys of the gospel, that we can know Jesus.

We can know God.

The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died for sinners.

That in the face of God's righteous judgment on sin, which would damn us all, Jesus took our place.

He died to take our punishment so that we would not have to.

But do you ever wonder why?

Feels like a really basic question, but I think I often forget to ask myself or to just think about why Jesus went to the cross.

Jesus died and rose from the grave to pay for our sins so that we could know him.

Because sin separates us from God.

And by paying the price for our sins, Jesus removes that need for separation so that we can be with God both in eternity in heaven, but also now, here on earth.

So as we seek Jesus and we seek to know him more, we will learn to know him, we will learn to love him, and as we learn to love him, we will desire to know him and we will seek him, and then we will know him, and then we will love him, and so on and so forth for the rest of our lives and into eternity.

Jesus says, to those who have, more will be given.

As we seek more of Jesus, we will get more of him and we will love him more and more and just keep going deeper.

So Jesus says that there are four kinds of soil that the seed can land on.

Four ways that we can hear God's words.

There's the path, soil can land on the path.

We can let the enemy take it away, take away God's word and never give it another thought.

There's the rocky soil, we can abandon God's word when times get tough.

There's the seed that lands on the weeds in the soil with the weeds.

We can let it become an afterthought as we chase material pleasure.

Or we can be the good soil.

We can lean in, we can hold fast, we can bear fruit with patience and seek Jesus' face to experience true abundance as we grow closer and closer with our Creator.

Jesus' challenge to his audience, and I think to us today, is to be careful how we hear.

We can choose which of these soils we will be.

And so my question that I want to leave you with today is which soil will you be?

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for coming to earth to speak to us.

Thank you for giving us your words in Scripture and for speaking to us day after day.

Lord, we pray that you would soften our hearts, that you would teach us to hear your voice as we come to you in Scripture.

Lord, we pray that you would move us to be sowers of the seed as well, to share with others, and to watch as you grow your word in their hearts into a plant that bears more fruit, Lord.

We pray that you would change our lives and change the lives of the people around us and of our city.

Pray all this in your name.

Amen.